Indian breads vary enormously between regions, and the variation is not decorative. Each form follows from a grain, a fuel and a cooking surface that were locally available.
The grain determines what is possible
Wheat contains gluten-forming proteins that produce an elastic dough capable of being rolled thin and of trapping steam to puff.
Millets, sorghum and rice lack that network, so their doughs cannot be rolled the same way and are instead patted out by hand.
Which is why the thin rolled breads belong to wheat-growing regions and the thicker hand-formed ones to areas where other grains dominated.
Fuel decides the cooking method
A flat iron plate over a modest fire cooks a thin bread in a minute and needs very little fuel, which suited households cooking on limited wood or dung.
Clay ovens hold heat for hours and cook breads stuck to their walls, but they require enough sustained fuel to justify heating, which made them communal or commercial.
Deep frying needs a substantial quantity of fat, so fried breads tended to be festive rather than daily in most households.
Fermentation appears where the climate allows
Leavened and fermented breads require warmth and time for microbial activity, and they appear where both the ambient temperature and the grain suited it.
Rice and lentil batters ferment readily in warm, humid conditions, which is why fermented preparations dominate in those regions.
Cooler and drier areas produced more unleavened breads, cooked immediately after mixing, with no waiting period built into the day.
The bread shapes the rest of the meal
A bread used as a scoop needs to be flexible and strong, which favours a thin rolled form that will not tear against a thick dish.
Where the bread is thicker and more crumbly, dishes served with it tend to be drier or thicker, since a loose gravy would not be carried.
This is why substituting one bread for another in a meal frequently feels wrong even when both are good, since the pairing was structural.
Puffing is a specific mechanical event
A bread puffs when steam generated inside cannot escape, because the surfaces have set into a continuous skin that traps it.
That requires even rolling, a hot enough surface to set the outside quickly, and enough moisture in the dough to generate the steam.
Failures usually come from one of the three rather than from the dough itself, which is why the same recipe puffs for one cook and not another.